( The Standard P.5
5 Feb 2013) Nearly all Hong Kong students believe living a
low-carbon lifestyle (低碳生活方式)
will help prevent climate change (氣候變化), but few actually do so.
A
Baptist University survey (浸會大學調查報告) found 95 percent of
the 6,000 students polled agree that human activities are the primary cause (主要的原因) of
climate change.
But
they are only willing to commit (願意付諸行動於) to walking or traveling by public transport
to school, rather than change their lifestyles on clothing choices and eating
habits.
"The
developed and mature public transport network allows students to travel
conveniently even by public transport," Kenneth Wong Koon-kwai, of the
Baptist University department of geography, said.
"On
the other hand, materialism (唯物主義) is still the dominant social value, and they
are less willing (不太願意的) to change their clothing choices."
The
survey canvassed Secondary One to Secondary Six students from 46 schools,
including aided (支援), direct subsidy scheme (直接資助計劃),
government and international schools.
Wong
said secondary students' consciousness (意識) towards (朝向) environment
protection is moderate (適度的), showing they have a positive attitude
towards environment protection.
He said
students believe it is difficult to change lifestyles. There is also a lack of
information about the green lifestyle(實踐環保生活).
The
survey shows that students believe climate change will have a significant
effect (顯著的影響) on Hong Kong, such as increasing the
frequency of extreme weather, a deterioration (惡化) of air
quality (空氣質素),
ecological destruction (生態破壞) and
energy consumption (能源消費量).
Wong
said those studying in international schools have relatively lower commitment (支持) to a
low-carbon lifestyle (低碳生活方式), probably
because they come from wealthier families.
He said
the current education system does not contain sufficient (充分的) information
about climate change and what is available is scattered(散佈的) in a
number of subjects, or students obtain (獲得) information from the internet and the media,
proving the system is inadequate (不充分的).
The
government should review and update the "Guidelines on Environmental
Education in Schools" that have been used for more than a decade
(十年).
Kelly Ip
The sense of environment protection in HK is less than other countries in Asia such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan, etc.
回覆刪除The complement Environmental Levy Scheme on Shopping Bags has taken effect from 7 July 2009. There are about 3,000 retailers have charged a fee of 50-cent per shopping bag if customers ask for it. Almost all consumers therefore carry their own bags with them for shopping. This policy seems to be successful. However, in my opinion, most of them do so maybe they do not want to spend any money on shopping bags. Why I think so? It is because there are many customers still waste plastic bags for buying food in markets such as fresh meat, fish, and vegetables and so on. Yet I occasionally saw a few customers to carry theirs with them for shopping there.
I once watched the TV programme of how we do for protecting the Earth, which showed the developed and mature recycle systems in those counties are successful. People living there have to stick with their responsibilities on Environment protection.
My friend recently came back from Taiwan and told me that she was hard to find any rubbish bins in streets there. So that she was careful and counted to use every piece of tissue paper during in her journey in Taiwan. She added it surprised her that Taiwan is a clean place even though there are not any rubbish bins on the streets. It reflects the education of the green lifestyle obtains a remarkable achievement in Taiwan.
For Hong Kong, it still lags its neighbour countries in living a low-carbon lifestyle. As a result, the government and schools as well as parents should work together to teach our generation to build up a positive attitude toward saving the Earth. The government should also educate residents how to help prevent climate change, to promote more information and messages about the advantage of green living to the public and make them to increase the sense of saving resources in the Earth.
Ben Chan